LONGMONT -- RTD board chairman Lee Kemp pitched the newest FasTracks option to Longmont residents Thursday night: rail to Longmont between 2028 and 2034. Until then, the tracks would reach Church Ranch near Westminster and bus rapid transit would cover the rest.

The response Thursday was simple. Give us guarantees. And give us Louisville.

"Extending rail to Church Ranch does little to stir the hearts of people in Boulder County," said Prue Larson, a member of Longmont's transportation advisory board, during the RTD presentation at the Longmont Senior Center. "If we can get that toehold up in Louisville somehow, this is something we can travel to and implement."

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By March 27, the Regional Transportation District plans to make a decision on the Northwest Rail Corridor from Denver to Longmont, the longest and most expensive of the corridors in the FasTracks plan adopted by voters in 2004. Without another sales tax increase, RTD expects to finish the 41-mile route by 2042. With an increase, the district had been mulling three options: keep to the original plan with a rejuvenated schedule, slow down other parts of the plan by six months to speed up the Northwest Corridor, or scrap the corridor entirely and replace it with a bus rapid transit (BRT) system.

The new fourth option still needs voter approval to add sales tax and change the plan. Kemp and Chris Quinn, RTD's project manager for the Northwest Corridor, called it a "hybrid plan" that would let the whole rail line be built in pieces, as funding became available.

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Under current estimates, Quinn said, the Church Ranch extension could be done between 2020 and 2022. That would build the first 12 miles of the corridor, while running BRT the rest of the way along both the Diagonal Highway and U.S. Highway 287, though not in a separated center lane.

The original "Option Four," introduced last week, had no dates for getting rail service to Longmont. Since then, Kemp said, RTD has been able to talk with the BNSF railroad about getting the service together in increments.

"It still gets the northwest rail completed," Kemp said. But several on the Longmont City Council had their doubts.

"What guarantee is RTD willing to give to communities along the Northwest Corridor that this is going to be completed in 2028 or 2034?" Councilman Gabe Santos said. "If those dates aren't met, do we get a refund? Do we get 'BRT-Plus?'"

"If we're getting married and you want to re-up our nuptials, we want a ring!" Councilman Brian Bagley said to laughter from the audience.

Councilman Alex Sammoury said he'd heard too many proposed end dates to be confident in any of them.

"What I've heard from my constitutents is they will not support an increased tax if they don't believe they'll see rail in a reasonable time," he said.

"I want to be clear," Kemp responded to him. "Rail is going to get to Longmont. Rail is going to get to Longmont. But ..."

"There can't be 'buts,' Lee," Santos said. "You say 2028 to 2034. I want to see that in black and white."

The counter-proposal from several transportation board members would push the corridor eight more miles to its first Boulder County station. With the line reaching downtown Louisville, board member Jeff Ilseman said, no RTD bus would have to use U.S. 36 or Interstate 25 to get people to Denver, and a BRT feeder system to that station could be cheaper than the current routes from Boulder County to Denver. Meanwhile, Longmont's planned $17 million station could be built to give a train-like BRT experience, he said, with indoor ticketing and loading, as well as walking directly on to and off of buses without using steps.

That all sounded good to resident Judy Lubow, who said she thought Longmont had been at the back of the line long enough.

"It's not intended that the northwest line is always going to be last," Kemp said.

"It's not intended, but it's what's happened," she responded.

Kemp said he wasn't certain whether an extension to Louisville could be built without passing a point of no return, when the full corridor would need to be double-tracked to accommodate BNSF's frieght lines. That's one of the expenses driving the line's $1.7 billion cost.

RTD's FasTracks monitoring committee will recommend an option Tuesday to be considered by the RTD board March 27.

Both the council and the audience echoed one sentiment over and over again: without a guarantee of rail, Longmont couldn't guarantee a "yes" vote for a new tax in November.

"I am willing to help pass another tax issue -- if I'm getting rail," resident Marilyn Hughes said. "I've talked to a lot of taxpayers and what I'm hearing is 'Give me rail or give me death!'"Scott Rochat can be reached at 303-684-5220 or srochat@times-call.com.

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